The Yogurt Shop Murders (2025) s01e01 Episode Script

(SOFT MELODY PLAYING
OVER SPEAKERS) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(R&B SONG
PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS) ♪
Oh, man.
Um, do you have any more
of this particular shirt?
Because it jumps
from a 16 and a half, 34,
-to a 17 and a half, 37.
-Okay.
Sixteen and a half.
CLAIRE HUIE:
I'm getting clothes
for the 48 Hour interview
and more extra clothes
to go to court
and nice dress clothes
and stuff like that.
CLAIRE:
Good? Good.
CLAIRE:
Yeah, they are
a little bit long.
I think we need to go
with the 29s.
JERRY: There you go.
Did you want to go shorter?
But that's basically
where they should live.
Well, if that's the way
they're supposed to be
then that's the way
they're supposed to be.
I'll go with that then.
Yeah, any time,
all your slack should hit about
right at the back of the heel.
That's rule of thumb.
Yeah, see, I'm so used
to doing this with my mom,
but all my family's
out of state right now.
-Oh, my gosh. (CHUCKLES)
-So
-You're on your own. (LAUGHING)
-Yeah, finally.
And I'm sure you probably think
it's really funny,
but we're doing a documentary
because I just got off
death row.
Oh, okay.
(POLICE SIREN BLARING)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NEWSCASTER 1:
Four young Austin girls dead.
NEWSCASTER 2: at the
I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!
shop, where two of them worked.
NEWSCASTER 1: Shot and killed
during an apparent robbery.
NEWSCASTER 3:
The bodies were found
in the back of the shop,
badly burned.
NEWSCASTER 4: Authorities are
sifting through the evidence
hoping to find some answers.
LANIER PRINCIPAL:
The Lanier school community
have been saddened
by the tragic deaths
of four young ladies
for whom we mourn today.
AMY NEWMAN:
I can't believe it happened.
I guess I had to see for myself
that it really did.
You don't ever think
anybody's going to come
into a yogurt place
(SNIFFLES) and shoot you
and all your friends.
This just doesn't happen
at the yogurt place. (CRYING)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
You sure have been most helpful
and very generous today,
so I'll definitely come back
and do business with you.
Because I used to be a salesman
at Radio Shack myself
-JERRY: Oh, did you?
-so I understand
a little bit of what you're
going through, yeah.
Yeah, I've spent two years
in a county jail
and then four years on death row
and then two years
in population.
NEWSCASTER: Seventeen-year-old
Jennifer Harbison,
her 15-year-old sister Sarah,
and 17-year-old Eliza Thomas
all died from a single gunshot
wound to the back of the head.
Thirteen-year-old Amy Ayers
was shot twice
in the back of the head.
REPORTER: "Senseless"
is a word being used most often
as police describe
Austin's worst murder case.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-First name?
-ROBERT SPRINGSTEEN:
It's Robert.
Robert.
-And your last name, Robert?
-ROBERT: Springsteen.
Oh. (CHUCKLES)
Not related to Bruce, though?
Well, as a matter of fact, I am.
He's like my dad's sixth cousin.
So, I guess it would--
make him my seventh cousin.
JERRY: Wow.
-All righty.
Got you all set, guys.
-All right.
-Good luck to you.
-ROBERT: Thank you.
Everything's going
to work out okay? (CHUCKLES)
ROBERT: It sure seems that way,
at least for right now.
You're off to a good start, man.
-Thank you, Jerry.
-Thank you.
I appreciate your
-Hey, no problem.
-assistance today.
-You bet. You have a good one.
JERRY: Thank you very much.
("DEVIL TOWN"
BY ALLEGRA KRIEGER PLAYING) ♪
I was livin' in a devil town ♪
Didn't know
It was a devil town ♪
Oh lord
It really brings me down ♪
About the devil town ♪
I was livin' in a devil town ♪
Didn't know
It was a devil town ♪
Oh lord
It really brings me down ♪
About the devil town ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
ASSISTANT: Is this okay?
JUSTIN ZEIFWACH:
A little higher, please.
A little higher,
a little higher. There you go.
MARGARET BROWN: Whenever
you're ready, just tell me.
-Yeah.
-MARGARET: I think we're ready.
-You ready?
-Yeah.
-Let's go.
-MARGARET: Let's do it.
-Thank you, sir, for doing this.
-You're welcome.
MARGARET: I am curious
about what initially
drew you to the story.
I just was curious about
how you got involved in this,
the yogurt shop.
Okay.
MARGARET: How does it feel
to be part of this thing,
31 years later?
What does that feel like?
(SIGHS) Uh
MARGARET: I'm interested in
the trauma that surrounds
-this case because--
-The what?
MARGARET: The trauma that
surrounds this case.
The depth that people
like you cared about it.
You know, I'm interested
because Austin is where I live.
I remember this case.
I know how important it is.
But also, like, is there a way
that this story
can help with healing?
(SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Um, that's a very open question.
(LAUGHS)
MARGARET: Yeah, I think it is.
At a point, it's just,
do you want to
Do you want to be
the weak person
and just have this thing
totally consume your life?
Or do you want
to go ahead and live?
People don't want
to talk about their grief.
That's private.
It's just, I've learned to deal
with it in different ways.
People are afraid
to share the brutality
that they've been through.
MARGARET: What comes up first
when you think of her?
Uh, for one, it's been 30 years,
seven months, and five days
and I still can't believe it.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CLAIRE: There are
a lot of details to the case.
There are a lot of people
with strong opinions.
You think you know one thing
and then you talk to somebody
and they convince you
of an entirely different thing.
That's right.
On this day in 1991,
four teenagers were
shot and murdered
inside what was a yogurt shop
in this strip mall.
What you're reduced to
is just people's experiences
of the crime and its effects.
("PEPPER"
BY BUTTHOLE SURFERS PLAYING) ♪
Some will die in hot pursuit
Fiery auto crashes ♪
INTERVIEWER 1: We're here
in the drag in Austin, Texas,
asking people about life
on other planets.
Whoa, check it out,
check it out. Bam!
I don't mind
The sun sometimes ♪
INTERVIEWER 1: What'd you
have for breakfast this morning?
I don't remember.
I was pretty wasted.
INTERVIEWER 2:
Are you a student?
Uh, no, actually.
I'm just in a band mostly.
REPORTER: Someone with
some big bucks had big plans
to change the landscape.
AUSTIN RESIDENT:
I feel bad about being displaced
by all those people
coming here, right.
And it makes me wonder
what's going to happen
in the future.
(SONG FADES) ♪
CLAIRE: Austin used to be
a little college town.
And then it started
to become a big city.
And a big-city crime
happened here.
CLAIRE:
Well, it was one of the most
shocking stories I've heard
in the 20 years
that I've lived here.
People were scared to go out.
People were scared
to go get yogurt.
I mean, how scary is that?
I don't know that
the city of Austin
has ever been the same
since the yogurt shop murders.
I mean,
that was a loss of innocence
for this town for sure.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CLAIRE: The yogurt shop murders
was like a ghost story
that people told.
It was always told
in hushed tones,
"This happened here."
Partly because nobody
has all the details.
Also because it was
never solved.
This case was so big in Austin.
It was exciting to work
on a film about it,
even if I didn't really
know what I was doing.
CLAIRE: So, that was in, I think
all of this filming took place
is around 2009, I guess.
And I'm sure
you probably think
it's really funny,
but we're doing a documentary
because I just got
off death row.
Oh, okay.
CLAIRE: I was taking
a video class and I had access
because I had this friend
who had worked on the case.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Can you see it from there?
CLAIRE: Hold it out--
hold it up like that.
And then I didn't finish it.
Of course, I had
all this amazing footage
to look back on.
LOUIS AKIN: Um, tonight,
we're going out
to the-- where the yogurt shop
used to be, the building,
to test a theory.
CLAIRE: This was a kind of case
that never left
anybody who worked on it.
When these shootings happened,
there were a bunch of boys
drinking in a creek
right behind the yogurt shop.
It's where that
cash advance store was.
That used to be the yogurt shop.
There were booths
along the sides
and there were tables
in the middle.
And the cashier
would be behind that--
looks like a fica tree,
but I think it's plastic.
And that counter there
where people would come up
and order yogurt.
Behind that,
they had the refrigerators
and there's a separate room
back there.
And it was back there
that the girls were killed
and that the place
was set on fire.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
AKIN: It's a little chilling
standing here like this.
There was
a terrible tragedy here.
Let's go head down
and we'll position
the film crew.
CLAIRE: This case doesn't
make any sense.
And everybody who
was touched by it
can't get to the bottom
of the narrative.
(RADIO BEEPING)
-POLICE DISPATCH: Jonesy.
-JOHN JONES: Yeah.
POLICE DISPATCH:
Did you hear about
the call 2900, West Anderson?
-Yeah, I'm headed over there.
-POLICE DISPATCH: Okay.
I'll meet you out there.
-(DEVICE BEEPING)
-JONES: 2900.
-(WALKIE TALKIE BEEPING)
-Homicide four.
(POLICE SIREN BLARING)
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JONES:
People ask me all the time,
"How long are you in homicide?"
And my response is,
"153 bodies."
Because that's how
you measure time
when you're
a homicide detective.
NEWS ANCHOR:
In some cities across the state,
people are killing each other
in record numbers.
Tonight, we take
a look at Austin
as crime reporter Lisa Kosolou
continues her Channel 7
news close-up.
JONES: A Channel 7 reporter
was doing a series
on murder in Texas.
They went riding around with me,
and then we made calls.
There seemed to be
a lot more random murders,
random violence.
And then while we were
at the last call,
they called me
on my handheld radio.
(RADIO BEEPS)
Okay, I'm copying the fire part.
You cut out on
the first part of that, though.
And I go, "Fire?"
because they wouldn't
need me for it.
POLICE DISPATCH:
-(RADIO BEEPS)
-That's 10-4. Going around.
(SIRENS BLARING)
JONES: (CLEARS THROAT)
A triple fatality.
A murder. Great.
(SIRENS BLARING)
(RADIO BEEPS)
JONES: Uh, where do I need
to come to, in here?
What place of business is this?
POLICE DISPATCH:
-(RADIO BEEPS)
-JONES: Okay.
By the time I got there,
as I pulled
into the parking lot,
was when they called me
on the radio
and said they found
a fourth one.
I had to go in through
the party shop,
which was next door,
because I couldn't go
in the front door
because the fire department
was still in there
knocking down the fire.
(POLICE SIRES BLARING
IN A DISTANCE)
JONES: It was still smoldering.
They had pulled down
the ceiling,
so there was water everywhere.
There was steam everywhere.
There was smoke everywhere.
As it started to clear out,
you could see the bodies.
Three together and then one
away from the others.
I'm not at all afraid
to go in the room
to see a dead person.
I don't want to see
no dead child.
That don't work with me.
(INDISTINCT POLICE RADIO
CHATTER)
JONES: The obvious question
when you got females
that are stripped, shot,
and burned is,
were they sexually assaulted?
When a body's been
declared dead,
it belongs to
the medical examiner.
The medical examiner wanted
to just load them up
and take them down
to the morgue
to do an autopsy.
But I wanted them to wait
until DPS got there
so they could do swabs,
because DNA was
something fairly new then.
But I knew and Huck knew
that that was important.
And if it hadn't been
for Huck
You know, he's the one
who talked 'em into waiting
until DPS got there.
We called the manager.
She said there's only supposed
to be two girls there.
Only Jennifer and Eliza
actually worked there.
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REESE PRICE: It was my first day
of my vacation,
and my mother-in-law
knocked on the door
and said, you know,
"You got a phone call.
The police are
on the phone for you."
And no phone call
in the middle of the night
is a good call. Never.
I was just kind of like,
"Yes, sir?"
He said, "We've had a fire
at the yogurt shop."
And I'm looking at the time
and I'm like,
"Okay, let it burn?"
You know, I was kind of kidding
because I knew
that the girls
would have been finished.
And he says,
"Well, I need you to sit down."
I'm like, "I'm fine. What's--
What's wrong?"
And he said, "No, no, no.
I need you to sit down."
And again, he tried to warn me.
And I said,
"No, sir, what's wrong?"
And he said, "Well,
we have four dead bodies."
And my knees went--
They just Boom!
And he said,
"Can you come up here?"
It's slow motion.
It's literally slow motion.
There was like this mist.
And I could see the yogurt shop
and there was just
lights flashing everywhere,
sirens, fire trucks.
And I remember
sort of a panic hitting in,
"Okay, this is real.
This is real. This is real."
We pulled up, and I think it was
Jones and Huckabay.
One of them said,
"Do you-- Do you think that
if we went inside,
you could identify the bodies?"
"Sure."
They said it'd be better
for me to do it
than their families.
I was only 24.
I wasn't thinking fire
and burned people.
I agreed to it because it was
the right thing to do,
and I still feel that
to this day.
It was just best.
There was fire trucks
in the back alley
and there was media everywhere.
We wound up going through
the front of the store.
There's no lights. Dark.
You know, you got the counter,
the machines,
and then there's the door
that leads you to the back.
The water was dripping down
on you, and it was dark.
It was-- It was just ominous.
And, um, there wasn't
anything there to identify.
So
They didn't have faces.
There's no clothing.
Fire's, um, very destructive.
It's not forgiving.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JONES: What we found
in the back there
was we found four victims.
That's all we can comment on
right now.
REPORTER 1:
Were the victims together
or were they in different parts
of the building? Can you
No, I can't.
Can't give you that either.
REPORTER 2:
Were they bound in any way?
Can't give you that.
REPORTER 2:
Was there any sign
of forced entry to the building?
Can't give you that.
REPORTER 2: What can you give?
Just what I gave you.
It's still very early
in the investigation, okay?
And there'll
probably come a point
that we need that information
to solve this case.
Put your hand. Hold on,
put your hand right here.
SONORA THOMAS:
It's already turned on, Liz.
Right here. I know. She puts
her hands over here. And look.
Okay. Yeah.
SONORA: I was 13.
I was at my dad's house.
And then,
in the middle of the night,
there was banging
on the front door.
Give me a kiss, Sonora.
And they didn't really
know anything.
I mean, that was like
the confusing part
about that night.
As they came in
and they were like,
"There was a fire."
And said
something happened to Eliza.
Yeah. It was such
a confusing scene.
I just remember-- and I--
my body just started
to have this
really strong reaction
and my-- my teeth
just started chattering.
Yeah. I remember at one point
just putting my hand in my mouth
to try to stop my teeth
from chattering.
My parents were divorced.
So, at some point we had to go
to tell my mom
what was going on.
Hi, Sonora, how are you?
And my mom wouldn't come
out of the house to talk
to the police officer.
I just remember my dad,
you know, saying, you know,
"Take care of your mom"
and then leaving.
My mom like, went to her room
and I just started
cleaning the house.
And at some point,
I turned on the TV
and this story was on the news.
REPORTER 1: The first sign
that something was wrong
came just after midnight
last night.
That's when
a passing police officer
noticed smoke
coming out of the store.
REPORTER 2:
But once the smoke cleared,
firefighters made
a grim discovery.
They found the bodies
of four young victims.
All had been shot in the head.
The victims are identified
as Eliza Thomas--
SONORA: And my sister's picture
was on the news.
I remember going to bed
and just thinking
like, "I've never
woken up on a day
that my sister wasn't alive,"
you know.
There's no Sonora without Eliza.
There's no Eliza without Sonora.
REPORTER 2:
17 years old
and a student
at Lanier High School.
Jennifer Harbison,
also 17 years of age
and her 15-year-old sister,
Sarah Harbison.
Both girls were
Lanier High School students.
It was just unspeakable
that someone did this
on purpose.
It was unspeakable.
You know, you just have
all those regrets of
of not protecting.
DICK ELLIS: Home video tapes
give us intimate glimpses
of the girls
and their personalities.
Jennifer was 17. Sarah was 15.
Jennifer's athletic claim
to fame was track.
Sarah loved the game
of basketball.
BARBARA AYRES-WILSON:
These balloons here
are from Sarah's last birthday.
DICK: Barbara and Frank Suraci
spend a lot of time
in their daughter's rooms.
This is Jennifer's room.
She too was a tomboy.
Two weeks after the murders,
a reporter came
to our house and he said,
"You're not crying."
And I said,
"I don't have anything left."
As a matter of fact,
this is Jennifer's pin
from the yogurt store
for her uniform.
I just get to a point that
I couldn't cry a lot anymore.
DICK: Jennifer and Sarah
shared a passion,
F.F.A., raising sheep.
BARBARA: They really just
love those animals.
They just love them.
DICK: Frank and Barbara
still do not believe
their girls are gone.
They know someday
the killers will be caught.
BARBARA: We chose to be public
about this from the beginning,
hoping that it would help
solve our case sooner.
And so,
any opportunity that we had
to be in front of a camera
at any time,
most of us parents
would do that.
DICK: If there was ever
anyone who was nearly born
in the saddle, it was Amy Ayers.
CROWD: (SINGING)
Happy birthday ♪
DICK: Amy's birthday.
At 12, she got
her cutting horse, Copy.
Her love of animals took her
to the F.F.A.
And it was through the F.F.A.
that she became friends with
Jennifer and Sarah Harbison.
PAM AYERS: Didn't have
to worry about those two
when they were together.
We knew that they were going
to be safe in what they did.
DICK: That was until
the night of December 6.
Amy and her three best friends
were (VOICE FADES)
SHAWN AYERS: The clearest memory
I have of her
is the first time
I got to hold her.
And I was sitting
in a rocking chair,
her on my lap.
I remember, because I wanted
a little sister so bad.
I didn't want a little brother.
So, when I had a little sister,
I was bayonets.
I got everything
I wanted right there.
(EMOTIONAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Back him a little bit there.
There's not one day
that I do not think of her,
or Sarah, Jennifer,
or Eliza, any of them.
(INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN
OVER PA)
SHAWN: My dad's always ranched.
We always had animals,
did cowboy stuff.
I mean, that's how I was raised.
The best way to live
or raise kids is on a ranch.
If you're on a ranch,
you've got everything you want.
We had our own milk cows,
we had a garden,
we had our own beef.
I'd ride a horse to the mailbox.
It's just the little things
like that.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
BOB AYERS:
The kids, they seen calves
and horses be born,
seen them grow up,
seen them get fat,
seen some die.
You know, it was real life,
it was real.
(SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BOB: When I think of her,
I think of horses.
But ever since she was
knee-high to a duck,
she liked the horses.
SHAWN:
If you're riding a cutting horse
you're riding a cutting horse.
You're doing the same thing
that the adults are doing.
There's no "kid version"
of riding cutting horses.
It's all the same thing.
(HORSE NEIGHS)
BOB: A lot of times
I'd be riding some colts
and I'd be having a problem,
I'd just stick her on him.
For a couple of days,
she'd ride him in the pasture,
do this, do that.
Come back
and my problems were over.
She just knew animals.
PAM: She was happy.
I mean,
she could be very serious.
She's kind of an old soul
but she was happy
and most happy around animals.
So, when I see kids
and animals together,
it really reminds me of her.
BOB: And after we'd moved
to Austin,
she got involved
with the Junior F.F.A.
MISSY HESTER:
Future Farmers of America.
The farm was kind of like
our, like, little getaway.
(PIG GRUNTING)
MISSY: After school,
everybody'd go to the farm.
We'd raise animals
and stuff together.
That's how I got to know
Jennifer and Liza
and Amy and all of them.
To me, F.F.A. teaches me
to be a better person,
and, um,
you know, to just learn more
about people
and how things work.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
-(THUNDER RUMBLING)
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SHAWN: The thing that sucks
is the older I get,
the less I can remember
about her.
And I mean, I try to remember,
I don't know why it's happening.
It bugs me.
But it's-- I mean, it's weird.
Smile!
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
BEVERLY LOWRY: I had written
a previous book about a murder.
And I learned to deal
with extreme behavior.
The extremities
of what people are capable of.
What a human being can do
to another human being.
MARGARET: So, we were going
back to the day it happened
and the 48 hours afterward.
In your mind, what are
the most pertinent thing
of those first 48 hours?
BEVERLY: Uh, I think
what really,
if you want to get down to it,
made this
almost impossible to solve
was the fire and the water.
Especially the water.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MIKE HUCKABAY: When I got
inside the yogurt shop,
I was in water up to here.
That's how much
the fire had come in there.
JONES: Turns out a lot
of the firemen were kind of
worried that they had
disturbed the crime scene.
You know,
there was soot everywhere.
So much of the evidence
was probably contaminated.
So, taking fingerprints
was kind of pointless,
although we tried.
We found the key
left in the front door,
but that was apparently
part of the process
of when they got ready to close,
to put the key
in the front door.
We went through
the whole procedure
front to back.
First of all, if there was
some customers in the store,
you'd lock the door
and they would sit
and usually finish.
There were some people
that would stay
and I know that
there was regulars
that they knew
or felt comfortable with.
We had a radio
and they would dance
in the back and giggle,
and they were always smiling,
always happy.
It was a job, but I don't know
that it was work to them.
They had a set order.
I do believe
the toppings were put away.
Machines were cleaned,
but the gaskets
weren't put back on.
I think there was a bucket
still sitting there on a ladder.
There was still water
in the sink
where they were washing
the topping ladles.
My guess is they were close
to being finished.
But they had extra help.
The other two girls, I'm sure,
were put to work.
BEVERLY: Earlier that night,
Sarah and Amy,
the two younger girls,
had been walking
around Northcross Mall.
Jennifer picked them up
when the mall closed
and took them
to the yogurt shop.
Northcross Mall is blocks
from the yogurt shop.
I mean,
it's walking distance, really.
But, you know,
safe side, she went
and picked them up,
brought them back,
ordered pizza,
and they may have been
in the back
helping clean up
when the intruders came.
We surmised the yogurt shop case
was a robbery gone bad.
That it went sideways
because the bad guys,
however many there were,
weren't aware
that there were two more girls
in the back of the store.
So, they'd been casing it even
for a short period of time,
all they would have seen
was the two girls out front.
So, they were up against four.
Four F.F.A. girls
on top of that.
Who knows
what all happened in there,
but it didn't take long.
JONES: Maybe they were
in there 20, 25 minutes.
And then it would have probably
taken another 15 minutes
for the fire to build up
to the point
to where it was noticeable
to the guy next door
in the party shop.
I think the girls tried
to get out the front door,
and took off running.
And they stopped them,
took them back in the back,
And thought,
"You're going to call the cops?"
So they kill 'em.
And then the fire was started.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JONES: The bodies were
in two locations.
The three girls were stacked
near the back door.
And then the fourth one,
which was Amy,
was ten, 13 feet away
from the others.
HUCKABAY:
All four girls were tied
with their own underwear,
brassieres
and was shot
in the back of the head
with a .22 caliber pistol.
JONES: There were two guns used,
a .22 and a .380.
The .22,
the round is small and soft
and it's just about impossible
to get ballistics off a .22.
The .380 round that had been
used on Amy, found it in a drain
and it was perfectly preserved.
The lands and grooves told us
exactly what kind of gun it was.
We knew what we were
looking for exactly.
("IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL
TIME OF THE YEAR"
BY ANDY WILLIAMS PLAYING) ♪
Northcross Mall
was really beautiful
and big and fun.
There was an ice-skating rink.
Christmas decorations were out
and Santa Claus around.
The movie theaters showed
The Rocky Horror Show
and they did these dramas
where they acted out
the parts at midnight.
That's where kids went
to hang out,
to walk around,
not so much to buy anything.
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BEVERLY: A week
after the yogurt shop murders,
a boy named
Maurice Pierce decides
to go to Northcross Mall,
the same mall
that Sarah and Amy had been
in the previous week,
and walk around
with a gun, a pistol,
in the waistband of his jeans.
And it was loaded,
and he had bullets
in his pocket.
His young disciple,
Forrest Welborn
just adored Maurice
and would do pretty much
whatever he could do
to be in his presence
because he was
magnetic, Maurice.
And they were walking
around the mall with this gun.
JONES: Maurice got arrested
with a .22 pistol
at Northcross Mall
which was two blocks away
from the yogurt shop.
We'd put out that we were
looking for a .22 and a .380.
So, I get a young kid over there
who's got a .22 pistol
and is two blocks away.
BEVERLY: They took him
and he was questioned
by a cop named Hector Polanco.
DICK: A homicide investigator
for five years,
Polanco has never had
a murder case go unsolved.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
JONES: Hector interviewed him
for three or four hours,
I guess,
before he called us in
and we came in.
I just took down what he said
and I'd stop every now and then
and ask him to clarify stuff.
"My name
is Maurice Earl Pierce,
I'm 16 years old.
I am
at the Austin Police Department
giving this statement
to Sergeant J. Jones
concerning what I know about
the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt
murders
last Friday night."
"I picked up Forrest Wellborn
from McCallum High School.
We rode around for a while,
went to my house.
Forrest said,
"Let's get the gun."
So I took it out of my closet
where I kept it,
and he put it in the glove box.
Forrest and I went up
to Northcross Mall.
Forrest got out of the car
with the gun.
I went to the bathroom,
and Forrest went somewhere else.
We split up.
So about 10:45, I just went
and sat out
in the car waiting for him.
Forrest showed up
at my car at about 11:30.
He got in the car
and handed me the gun,
then said, 'I did something.'
I said, 'Like what?'
But he never did answer."
BEVERLY: So Maurice
gave up Forrest Welborn
and said Forrest
had borrowed his gun
and had disappeared for a while
and come back sweaty
and the gun had been fired
and he was smelling
of hairspray
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
which Maurice explained
as a way to start a fire,
to spray hairspray
and throw a match in it.
When asked who else
was with him that night,
Maurice said,
"Rob Springsteen
and Michael Scott."
JONES:
"Forrest and I left the mall.
We met Rob Springsteen and Mike.
Then we went riding around,
went up to the trails
and shot the gun off
because Mike and Rob
said they wanted to."
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BEVERLY: Michael Scott
and Rob Springsteen.
They were layabouts.
They'd drank a lot of beer,
smoked weed,
like a lot of kids their age.
They were looking for trouble.
The day after the murders,
those four guys stole a car
and went to San Antonio
to visit a girlfriend.
JONES: "Forrest and I saw
a goldish tan colored Pathfinder
with keys in it.
We took it
and went and picked up Rob
and Mike and went driving."
HUCKABAY: They stole a car
and went to San Antone.
And they drove around
and did stupid stuff
and then came back,
parked that stolen car
where they had gotten it from.
JONES:
"When we got back to Austin,
I dropped Rob and Mike
at Rob's house.
Forrest asked me
if he could borrow the gun.
I told him no. I asked him why.
He said because 'I want to go
do what I did last night,
go kill some more girls.'"
Later the next day,
we wired him up
and sent him out to Forrest.
JONES: And we listened to that.
We were following him
on the wire.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
He was trying
to lead Forrest along
and Forrest had no idea
what he was talking about.
And we got Forrest
in to interview him. Uh
Forrest, he couldn't organize
a two-car parade.
I mean, he just
you know,
he couldn't have held it in.
You know,
we had Sergeant Polanco
and two other
homicide investigators
that had been there a while.
They knew interrogation.
So, could they have done it?
Yeah, they could have.
Did they? I don't know.
Where's the--
Where's the evidence?
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
You get to a point
where your inner body, soul,
and all that comes up
and says, "This is the guy."
I felt that.
Just the way he acted
and reacted and all this
"Something here, Huck."
But I had to prove it.
You have to get
a written confession
signed by the guy
to get him indicted, you know.
If you don't have a confession,
then you better have
a bunch of good evidence
to prove that he did it.
Well, we didn't have that.
We didn't have
anything to prove, you know.
I mean, we had no fingerprints.
Uh
(INTRIGUING TUNE PLAYING) ♪
(RAIN PATTERING)
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
LARRY BRILL:
Good morning. It's ten o'clock.
I'm Larry Brill.
The families of four girls
murdered earlier this month
at a yogurt store
are making a plea
for help this morning.
The investigation
has been moving along slowly,
but police and the families
need help to catch the killers.
We are the parents
and step-parents
of the four young teenage girls
brutally slain
at the North Austin yogurt shop.
on December 6, 1991.
We've been told
that the community
is looking to us for leadership
and advice on ways
to handle this tragedy
and what to do.
The families are still having
good days mixed with bad,
so are the police.
Under the close scrutiny
of an angry
and impatient public,
investigators have been
going full throttle now
to turn up any new clues
as to who might have
killed the four girls.
There's a lot of things
that we did
in this case
that hadn't been done before.
We sent undercover guys
to the funerals
and had it mic'd up
just in case somebody
showed up to apologize.
We pulled every ticket
that was written
in that part of town,
we called two or three times
for all of the customers
that had been
in the yogurt shop.
Without video evidence,
we're depending on people
answering the call
through the media.
It's just going to take
the right phone call,
the right little piece
of information.
The ones that use credit cards,
we knew.
But we got quite a few in
that had used cash.
Everybody wanted to help.
Customers and friends
of the victim have told us
about what they consider
to be suspicious people
going in and out
of the restaurant.
Something else we did
in the yogurt shop case,
we hypnotized everybody
that was in the shop.
Maybe they had seen something
the night they were in there
that looked fairly unusual.
That's how we got composites
from several of them,
is we put them under hypnosis.
Police are expected
to release part
of an in-depth
psychological profile
developed last week
with help from the FBI.
POLICE SPOKESPERSON:
The assessment
of the ICBY murders
are as follows.
Although the race
of the offenders
in this case
is difficult to determine,
it is probable
that the killers are White.
Although other races
cannot be eliminated
on this basis alone
due to the fact
that other races do frequent
this commercialized area.
The age of the offenders
is also difficult to establish
but in all probability,
they are in their late teens
to mid-20s.
Likely unemployed
or in a menial job
not requiring contact
with the public,
and likely we're dealing with
residents of the area.
NEWS ANCHOR:
One has a dominant personality
and manipulates the weaker ones
by forcing them to participate
in some aspect of the crime.
Police believe
at least one of them
has told someone else
and they're hoping
this person will come forward.
You have a person out there
who wasn't there, who knows.
He's standing there every day
looking at a murderer
who up to this point
is getting away with it.
The police need
additional eyes and ears.
If you think you have
something to report,
however seemingly insignificant,
your tip may earn you
a substantial reward.
NEWS ANCHOR 2: A daycare group
that two of the murdered girls
attended when they were
in preschool,
called Child Inc.,
called for a community effort
in solving the crime.
NEWS ANCHOR 3:
Telephone companies
paid to put billboards
on more than 40 taxi cabs
in Austin this week.
HUCKABAY: Any information
that anyone has
that they think
might be remotely helpful
needs to be called in.
BARBARA:
We want those pictures up.
We want people to know
that these beautiful girls
were alive,
a part of this city,
and we don't want
anyone to forget
that they lived, they were here,
and they were murdered.
Whoever did this is going
to have to be caught,
and they're gonna have to be
brought to justice.
SONORA: I always want
someone watching me
because I know Eliza was
my sister and my best friend.
And half of me died
when I heard the news.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
There's somebody working
around the clock on it.
Uh, we're getting
numerous calls still.
And, you know,
a lot of the information
is just not any good.
But we never know which piece
of information
is going to be the piece
that we need
to solve the puzzle.
JONES: How close we were
to the families,
that's something else we did
that was pretty unique.
They were pretty much a part
of the investigation,
I mean, they could come and go.
They kind of walked in
a couple times
when we were jacking up
some suspects, but, you know.
John Jones and Mike Huckabay,
they came to our house a lot.
Of course, Mike Huckabay
wore boots.
He was kind of the cowboy
of the police department.
We-- We got along.
Bob liked me.
I'm not really a cowboy,
but I, you know,
do a lot of cowboy stuff,
rodeos and stuff like that.
We just sort of connected there.
I didn't want to get real close,
but it's hard not to.
They would give us some tidbits
or keep us up to date.
You could see the stress
on them, stress on us.
I had full faith in them.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
DAN RATHER:
Two months after the murders,
members of the community
came together
to try and keep alive the memory
of the four teenagers.
ORGANIZER: Now the families
over here, okay?
A couple of Austin composers
wrote a song.
"We Will Not Forget."
Y'all you ready to do one now?
(EMOTIONAL
POWER BALLAD PLAYING) ♪
I watch you lying there ♪
You have my eyes and hair ♪
I love your laughs,
Your coos and sighs ♪
The answer to my prayer ♪
We will not forget ♪
Time we had to share ♪
We will not forget ♪
Dreams you'll never dare ♪
We will not forget ♪
REPORTER: Several hundred people
showed up to remember the girls.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER: Some spent their time
quietly reflecting,
others reminiscing
about the good times they'd had.
We had walked together
every day after first period.
We'd just sit there talking.
Just me and her
we went down the hall.
It helps to know that there
are more people
than just you going through
the exact same thing
and feeling
the exact same thing.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BARBARA:
This is real painful stuff.
So, I really work hard
to get back
to the funny part of it,
because it's just too much.
The thing I laughed about
right after the girls died
is that Americans,
the way we deal with grief,
let's see, we had T-shirts,
we had coffee mugs,
we had buttons, we had pins.
We have to make-- We have
to make a marketing opportunity
out of everything.
So, we did. We sure did.
We did all that, too.
So, uh, isn't that funny?
It's got their names on it.
CLAIRE:
The deeper I got into it,
the more incapable I felt
of telling the story myself.
This was Sarah's eighth grade.
You can tell she has glasses
and Jennifer's senior year.
I would find myself talking
about the case,
the project that I'm working on.
I'm working on this project
but the project's so dark.
And I would talk about it as if
this was, uh,
like my path to professionalism.
BARBARA:
And they're both smiling.
-CLAIRE: It's adorable.
-BARBARA: Oh my gosh.
More white sands, more memories,
more life, more
Oh yeah, that's very, very
emotional to do that, so
CREW MEMBER: Can we get
a wide shot of you
-looking through them?
-BARBARA: Yeah.
People always say,
"Oh, I just can't imagine."
You don't need to.
Don't even-- Don't even
need to think about it.
It's too much to think about,
too much to carry
with you forever.
You'll have your own pain
in your own way
and your own time.
You don't need
to visit this one. (SNIFFLES)
It's enough.
(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
(KEY CLICKS)
CLAIRE: And then we have
the sit-down interview with her.
I don't remember it very well,
but she was really open.
Well, I guess can we start off
by your telling us
how your daughters
were murdered?
All right, so anyway
(LAUGHS) Um
I'm mortified
by my own footage,
um, which made
editing it difficult. But, um
I think that's
an insensitive way
to start an interview.
(LAUGHS)
Um, and
what are you gonna do?
I mean, it is what it is.
I wanted to get to that, um
that moment where
you
are sensitive to the terror
that the girls faced.
And I know
that the families have
thought about that.
So, I asked the question,
but it sounds insensitive.
We can see how she responds.
Well, I guess, um
Well, I guess, can we start off
by your telling us
how your daughters
were murdered?
(CHUCKLES) Um
Yeah, uh
December 6 was a Friday
and and I was at work
and I talked
to the girls on the phone
and I told them I was
getting off early that day.
And so, I was supposed
to get off
at 4:30, and when I came home,
I was actually--
actually it was
5:30 when I got home,
so Sarah was sitting
on the couch
and she was peeling an orange
and, uh, Jennifer wasn't--
I asked her
where her sister was.
She said, "She's over at Sam's."
That was her boyfriend,
that was Jennifer's boyfriend.
And they had
taken him home from school.
And-- But Sarah was--
She said to me, she said,
"I'm going out tonight."
And I said, "Oh, you are?"
Interesting that she was
telling me
what she was going to do
and, uh, before she asked.
And so, yeah, she said, "I am--
We're going to the mall.
Amy's going to spend the night.
We're going to the mall."
I said, "Okay." And so, uh
Anyway, just-- she was
in such a good mood.
She was in such a good mood.
That's the thing I remember
the most about the last--
that last evening.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BARBARA: Jennifer was going
to work at the yogurt shop
that night and I was so tired
because my boss
had been on vacation
and Sarah wanted me
to take her and Amy
to the mall
so they could do
some Christmas shopping
or whatever they were doing.
And I said, "Oh, man,
I just don't feel like it."
So, Jennifer,
uh, I convinced Jennifer
to take Sarah with her
and to go pick up Amy
before-- on her way
to work and drop them both
at the mall,
which was just a block or two
over from
the yogurt store itself.
And, uh, so I walked them out
to the car
and they were getting,
you know, getting all their
stuff together.
And, you know,
I got a hug from both of them.
Of course,
I told them I loved them
and got to do that last
"Y'all be careful, I'll see you
and I'll talk to you later.
Y'all be careful."
And off they went
and that was
the last time I saw them.
(SOMBER MUSIC SWELLING) ♪
BARBARA: My husband and I were
at the house that night,
and he was watching TV
and they had a special
on Pearl Harbor.
And I just didn't want
to watch it.
It just upsets me,
so I didn't watch it.
So I went into the bedroom
to watch TV,
the Star Trek I think is what--
the reruns.
And I was in there
and I was laying across the bed.
I still remember
I had on my purple sweats
of the day, you know,
and I was all snugged,
but I fell asleep
on top of the covers,
and he came to bed
and sort of got in
under his side
and I never really
got in the covers.
And then I heard
the doorbell ring,
and it startled me
because I wasn't exactly in bed
and I wasn't exactly out of bed.
And I jumped up
and he was in bed
and I ran to the door
and I didn't see the girls
and I was,
you know, things are running
through your mind.
It's not that many feet
from my bed to the front door.
So, I was looking
and I turned the lights on.
And as soon as I
opened the door,
there were two police officers
and a lady with them.
And I said,
"Skip, the police are here.
Something's wrong
with the girls."
They didn't tell me that.
I knew. I knew.
And he got up
and they had us
sit down on the couch
and they said there had been
a fire, and, um
(SNIFFS)
and that the girls were gone,
that they were dead.
And, uh, I kept trying
to listen to that.
I knew that didn't make sense.
I knew that it didn't make sense
because the girls
wouldn't just burn up.
They just wouldn't burn up
in a fire.
And, um
And that they were both gone.
(BREATHING SHAKILY)
And
So, you're processing,
trying to make that work.
How can someone be
and then not be?
(SOMBER MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
BARBARA:
And they wouldn't leave
until we called someone
to be with us.
I didn't want anybody to know,
so I just lied.
"No, we don't have anybody.
We don't know anyone.
Can't tell that story."
And finally I admitted
that I had a sister
that lived in this town.
And
Um
So, the
the lady
from the police department
called my sister.
It's so funny,
because we've laughed
about this story since. She--
She jumps out of bed,
and what does she put on?
Her stupid blue sweats.
(LAUGHS)
So, we're both dressed
in these silly sweats.
That's not funny, I know, but
Uh
it was just crazy.
So, she did get across town.
She had to stop and get gas,
and she came across town
in her blue sweats.
And, um
and then I had to tell her
the, um,
what had really happened.
I, uh
I-- I had to tell her,
and I had to see her face.
It was horrible to see her face.
You don't want to tell people
horrible things.
And, uh, that was
was a really horrible thing.
CHILD: (ON RECORDING) What?
Acknowledging someone's death
is just
is just so very hard.
And (SNIFFS) so
Of course, so then
we have to call Mike Harbison,
the girls' father
and hear his screams
And
and his wife got on the phone
and she was saying,
"Tell me what happened.
He's screaming
and I don't know what happened."
And we had to tell her.
And
So, you have another person
whose life is over.
And one more person
whose life is over. And
I had to call my sister,
my other sister
and tell them
that life was over and
and listen to the screams.
And
This was just our house.
This was just my house.
There were other houses.
Bob and Pam had to
go through this. (SNIFFLES)
Maria Thomas
had to go through this.
Telling the families the news
of the absence of souls.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪